Happy Hour Skateboards began with a horde of Finnish skater boys who look just like you might imagine: messy haired and dressed in streetwear and probably holding a board or a beer. United by their love of skating, the gang also values art & culture, chosen family, and enjoying life to the fullest, just like Tom’s Men. The crew wanted a brand for themselves, and so they created one…  Fast forward a decade and a half— they are working on their second collaboration with Tom of Finland Foundation. The new line features the catchphrase, “Just Cruising”, a subtle play on...

Tom of Finland’s imagery is so iconic, it transcends the confines of wall art. The brawny black and whites images look good on anything (I’ve got a tattoo on my right arm). If you take a trip to TOM House, you’ll see the images everywhere— they instantly transform a space, whether printed on clothes, flatware, or in Finlayson’s case, textiles. Finlayson is the oldest textile brand in Finland and all of Scandinavia, and has been collaborating with Tom of Finland Foundation since 2014. The classic label has a huge diversity of products, but the Tom of Finland collaboration is definitely...

While I was living at TOM House as the artist-in-residence, Dome Karukoski was finishing the Tom of Finland biopic. I had the opportunity to observe some of the final editing process, the arduous attention to detail that filmmakers labor over in the last stages of production. It was really special to be in the House during that time— the residents served as a liaison between the film and Tom’s legacy, making sure that his story was told with integrity. The biopic starts with Touko Laaksonen’s life in Finland during the war, and eventually follows the artist to Los Angeles, where...

Dian Hanson is a woman who needs no introduction. As one of the first female pornographers coming out of the 1970s hippie porn scene, her prolific career has been diverse: from writing reader derived porn, to casting and directing shoots, to editing books and magazines about erotic subjects. Dian first got her start working at sex magazine Puritan, and over the next 25 years, edited magazines including Partner, Oui, Adult Cinema Review, Harvey, Hooker, Juggs and Leg Show. Since joining Taschen in 2001, she has become one of the foremost experts on Tom of Finland, working on everything from compact books, to more ambitious projects, like her Tom of Finland...

In 2015 Kris Aaron and his partner Andrew Walker started painting on antique china and vintage tchotkes. Within three years, the pair had moved from customizing found objects to maintaining a business and art practice. That purview, dubbed Pansy Ass Ceramics, now spans pins similar to those early paintings featuring bound boys, a selection of phallic planters, butt plug vases, ball gag mugs and jerking figurines. Here, we talk to the Toronto based boys about trends in the queer art market and why they inject sex into their work.

Paul Chan is no stranger to political activism. From the outset of his career, The Hong Kong born, US based artist has used his practice to address central issues to US politics like America’s involvement in the Middle East, the policies of former president George  W. Bush, and the actions of the Republican party. In 2010, the artist founded Badlands Unlimited with the mission of publishing things the public has never seen before, like limited edition artworks, downloadable files and paperback erotica. In the Spring of 2017, the publishing house released Chan’s latest venture into the world of political activism,...

Picture this: You’re are your grandma’s house going though your mom’s old clothes, and you find a sick denim jacket with an enamel cherry pin tacked onto the front pocket. You’re obsessed, enamel crazed, all you want to do is defile the raw denim with a slew of adorable (and sometimes erotic) bling. Well thank Goddess for GAYPIN’!!! This sassy little brand is run by a couple of friendly queers who are here to deliver your fantasies. They’ve got the most darling collection of pins and whatnot no accessorize your already fabulous lives. I got the opportunity to ask them...

Working under the name My Lost Uncle - MissingSince1979, Jani Maunula is a Finnish independent fashion designer whose latest collection pays homage to 1990s icon, Tony Ward. Featuring t-shirts, hoodies, sexy underwear and travel bags, the collection more specifically draws inspiration from Tony Ward’s iconic role in Bruce LaBruce’s 1996 Hustler White, which scandalized audiences for its raw portrayal of male prostitution and sexuality. To mark the designer’s recent welcome into the Tom universe (his items are now officially available through the Tom of Finland Store), we caught up with Jani to find out what it is about Tony Ward, Hustler...

Boy Smells is a Los Angeles brand, born from two design experts and produced locally in Pico-Union. They’ve started with candles, but you can expect a whole menage of products to compliment your lifestyle coming up on the horizon. Beyond the divine scents, which the creators have curated from a pool of memories, the minimal pink packaging is meant to target a wide audience. The boys boast that their product is for “anyone who gets it.” What’s not to get? A premium product with super sleek branding meant to stir up your emotions and enrich your environment— count us in!...

Silvia Prada is a Spanish born, New York based artist whose figurative, handmade illustrations celebrate gay iconography and popular culture from the 1980s and 90s. Her nostalgia meets pop art drawings have appeared in The Face, Dazed & Confused, and V Magazine, and been shown at Deitch Projects, MoCa Shanghai and Colette. Prada’s personal affinity for gay culture has resulted in a close relationship with the Tom of Finland Foundation, who recently granted her access to Tom’s collages and reference pages as points of inspiration in the development of portraits infused with Tom’s artistic eye. The result of this partnership...

Working across mediums of installation, video, drawing, painting, performance and photography, Josh Paul Thomas has focused on the classical male nude in its contemporary context for the past decade. His creative ventures have led him to collaborate with designer Bernhard Willhelm, who over the years has given him artistic freedom to photograph his collection of muses, including Joe Dellasandro, Tony Ward, and Pamela Anderson. While his work has been featured in every imaginable publication, like Vogue, Interview and Vanity Fair, never has the artist received a solo exhibition...until now. We caught up with Thomas to talk about this notable accomplishment,...

Bruce LaBruce is at it again! Following the release of The Misandrists, set at a school for wayward girls that’s actually the front for an organization of radical lesbian terrorists, the filmmaker is focusing on an anthology film and a full length, both of which deal with subject matter that doesn’t disappoint in provocation. There’s incest, twins, perversions and transgressive sex, all of which further LaBruce’s project of disrupting the status quo of modern sexuality. To add to the list of ventures, the filmmaker has recently made over 100 editions of his deliciously raunchy photographs available through the Tom of...